LIEUTENANT GENERAL WILLIAM J. "BILL" BENDER

Lt. Gen. William J. "Bill" Bender is the Chief, Information Dominance and Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. General Bender leads three directorates and supports 54,000 cyber operations and support personnel across the globe with a portfolio valued at $17 billion. He has overall responsibility of the Air Force’s Information Technology portfolio as the senior authority for Information Technology investment strategy, networks and network-centric policies, communications, information resources management, information assurance, and related matters for the Department of the Air Force. As Chief Information Officer, General Bender provides oversight of portfolio management, delivers enterprise architecture, and enforces freedom of information act and privacy act laws. He integrates Air Force warfighting and mission support capabilities by networking air, space, and terrestrial assets. Additionally, he shapes doctrine, strategy, and policy for all cyberspace operations and support activities.

General Bender was commissioned in 1983 after earning a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Manhattan College. He has held staff assignments at Air Mobility Command, Headquarters U.S. European Command and Headquarters U.S. Air Force. His commands include an airlift squadron, an operations group, an air refueling wing, an airlift wing, and the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center. He has also served as Vice Commander of the 21st Expeditionary Mobility Task Force. Prior to his current assignment, he was the Deputy Chief, Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq.

The general is a command pilot with more than 4,000 hours in the T-37, T-38, C/KC-135A/E/R, KC-10, EC-18B, E/KE-3A/B, C-141B, C-17A, C-130E and C-130J.

SUMMARY OF JOINT ASSIGNMENTS
1.July 1995 - July 1997, joint staff officer, Current Operations (J33), Headquarters U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany, as a major
2.July 2006 - December 2007, executive officer to the Deputy Commander, Headquarters U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany, as a colonel
3.July 2013 – September 2014, deputy chief, Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq, as a major general